April 2014 Archives

By Armand Leone of Britcher Leone, LLC posted in Misdiagnosis on Friday, April 25, 2014.

A misdiagnosis occurs in at least 1 out of every 20 patient encounters in doctors' offices, according to a study by researchers at the Houston Veterans Affairs Center for Innovation and Quality, Effectiveness and Safety and the Baylor College of Medicine. This translates into at least 12 million patients being misdiagnosed each year and, of these errors, at least half of these errors have the potential to cause severe harm. The rate of misdiagnosis malpractice in the primary care setting is higher than in any other area of medicine.

Physician white lab coats worn in the hospital are frequently contaminated with harmful bacteria. The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) examined this problem and issued recommendations for hospitals in non-operating room areas. Although believed to enhance professional appearance and despite its historical role in American medicine, as physicians go from patient to patient, the white lab coat transmits bacteria from patient to patient unless careful and rigorous steps are taken to prevent this. Especially in the hospital, there is a real danger of cross-contamination with drug resistant strains of bacteria, such as methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin resistant enterococcus (VRE) and other multi-drug resistant organisms.

In recent years, New Jersey newspapers have been filled with headlines about recalled medical devices. DePuy hip replacements, pacemakers, and infusion pumps are among the defective devices that have been pulled from the market after thousands of patients received the dangerous implants. These high-profile products are among thousands of defective medical devices that have been recalled recently.